Many construction jobs require holes to be drilled into concrete or other dense material. Commonly, such drilling requirements further demand holes to be drilled in groups containing multiple drill holes, or as individual holes or groups of holes separated by predefined lengths.
For instance, drilling holes into bridge parapets for placement of railing is extremely difficult with hand drills—even the use of larger wheeled drills is difficult. Additionally, roadway and runway construction often requires dowel pin holes to be drilled during the construction or repair process. These and other drilling operations must be carried out repeatedly, so there is a need for a drill apparatus that can drill a number of holes in succession with minimal amounts of drill alignment and machine adjustment by the operator, thereby enabling increased throughput production levels.
In many situations, operating drilling machinery is difficult or dangerous because the drilling surface orientation makes it difficult for the operator to view or monitor the drilling operation while operating the drilling apparatus. Thus, a drilling method and apparatus that would allow an operator to control drilling machinery from a safe location while also allowing close monitoring of the drilling process is needed.